It ought to be more engaging than it is. Willem DaFoe is a fine actor, and his performance here is as good as any he's given in the past. Gregory Hines doesn't have the same power but is reliable and sympathetic as always. Fred Ward is a tough, masculine bemustached presence here, as in "Benny and June," masculine without trying too hard to be. Scott Glenn has a small part that carries a lot of impact. Amanda Pays is -- well, Amanda Pays, perhaps the planet's least likely nun.
The story has potential too, lifted as it seems to be from "Night of the Generals," based on Kirst's novel. Two plain-clothes CID men search for an officer who's been slaughtering hookers in the chaos of wartime Saigon. There are touches of "Apocalypse Now" too, as in the scene at Khe San where an apparently deranged Marine has dug himself a hootch at the end of a long trench, reminiscent of the scene at the bridge in "Apocalypse Now."
But it just doesn't come together for me. There is no discernible character development. Everyone at the end of the movie is pretty much exactly what he or she was at the beginning. The two CID men finish their job. The focus is on DaFoe, who practically bursts with principle. Hines is more than just a sidekick here, but not much more. Glenn is an obvious psychotic who throws a couple of VC prisoners out of a helicopter and then tells DaFoe and Hines that they are about to ruin his army career by squealing on for being into S&M. Then he screams, "If I killed any prostitutes, I'll stay in this helicopter. If I DIDN'T kill any prostitutes, I'll jump out of the helicopter." Then he jumps out. What was THAT all about?
Amanda Pays with her limpet-like lips exudes sensuality. She has a good moment or two with the CID men when they are questioning her about the murdered hookers. She looks at the photos and tells them phlegmatically that, yes, this one was into sadism. This one specialized in oral sex. The officers lined up to wait for her. And this girl was a prostitute and put on lesbian shows for the men at a bar called "The Pink Pussy." Meanwhile the two investigators are squirming with discomfort and rolling their eyes at the ceiling. She takes them to the bar where a nude stripper is performing and punishes them even more by insisting that they not wait backstage to question the witness but take a table in front instead. (Later she admits she enjoyed discomposing them.) But she's one of those movie nuns who is allowed to strip down to her shift and be attracted to one of the men because she had not yet taken her final vows.
There are so many pegs here to hang good things on but they really don't show up. The treatment of sociopolitical issues is perfunctory. The characters are immutable. The final revelation comes as no surprise -- at least it didn't to me. The gaps are filled up with car chases and shootouts like any grade-B thriller. It's too bad really.
The story has potential too, lifted as it seems to be from "Night of the Generals," based on Kirst's novel. Two plain-clothes CID men search for an officer who's been slaughtering hookers in the chaos of wartime Saigon. There are touches of "Apocalypse Now" too, as in the scene at Khe San where an apparently deranged Marine has dug himself a hootch at the end of a long trench, reminiscent of the scene at the bridge in "Apocalypse Now."
But it just doesn't come together for me. There is no discernible character development. Everyone at the end of the movie is pretty much exactly what he or she was at the beginning. The two CID men finish their job. The focus is on DaFoe, who practically bursts with principle. Hines is more than just a sidekick here, but not much more. Glenn is an obvious psychotic who throws a couple of VC prisoners out of a helicopter and then tells DaFoe and Hines that they are about to ruin his army career by squealing on for being into S&M. Then he screams, "If I killed any prostitutes, I'll stay in this helicopter. If I DIDN'T kill any prostitutes, I'll jump out of the helicopter." Then he jumps out. What was THAT all about?
Amanda Pays with her limpet-like lips exudes sensuality. She has a good moment or two with the CID men when they are questioning her about the murdered hookers. She looks at the photos and tells them phlegmatically that, yes, this one was into sadism. This one specialized in oral sex. The officers lined up to wait for her. And this girl was a prostitute and put on lesbian shows for the men at a bar called "The Pink Pussy." Meanwhile the two investigators are squirming with discomfort and rolling their eyes at the ceiling. She takes them to the bar where a nude stripper is performing and punishes them even more by insisting that they not wait backstage to question the witness but take a table in front instead. (Later she admits she enjoyed discomposing them.) But she's one of those movie nuns who is allowed to strip down to her shift and be attracted to one of the men because she had not yet taken her final vows.
There are so many pegs here to hang good things on but they really don't show up. The treatment of sociopolitical issues is perfunctory. The characters are immutable. The final revelation comes as no surprise -- at least it didn't to me. The gaps are filled up with car chases and shootouts like any grade-B thriller. It's too bad really.